There's nothing quite as innocent as a kid chomping on some cereal before heading out to catch the bus for school. After all, Kellogg's Corn Flakes are a breakfast staple for many households, ours included. But before you grab another box and toss it into your shopping cart, you may want to know the deep, dark history of how this crunchy treat came to be.

Apparently, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's intention for the cereal was not to fill hungry bellies. Instead, he intended to rescue humanity from a plague of debauchery. In more basic terms, he wanted people to stop having sex, including self-pleasure.

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In the late 19th century, Dr. Kellogg made it his duty in life to stop sexual desire in its tracks and wrote several anti-sex books. According to Mental Floss, he believed masturbation, in particular, would bring about an onslaught of diseases. It's also rumored that even he, a married man, abstained from sex with his wife.

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Dr. Kellogg devised a list of different foods that the sexually-driven population could eat to stop themselves from feeling frisky. "He thought that meat and certain flavorful or seasoned foods increased sexual desire, and that plainer food, especially cereals and nuts, could curb it," reported Mental Floss. Dr. Kellogg and his brother, Will, eventually came up with what we now munch on with our eyes half closed at the crack of dawn: Corn Flakes.

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Who knew the cereal brand had such a scandalous past? And, as you might have guessed, Dr. Kellogg's invention did not end up halting pleasure.

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